clairedavieswriter

This might be a good moment to share my plan for the next 800 miles or so. Technically, to achieve the longest distance across France from south to north, I should have started somewhere in the middle of the Pyrenees, but that just wasn’t practical, and I’m making the rules, so…

Having hugged the coast since crossing the border at Hendaye, I will head inland tomorrow and don’t expect to see the sea again till I pedal into Dunkirk on 1 June. While we’ve enjoyed a rest from hills over the last couple of days, we won’t be all that sorry to have a change of scenery. Today we again saw a lot of mature pine trees:

Quite a lot of baby pine trees:

And even an old pine tree repurposed as a signpost:

But sometimes it helps to see the wood for the trees. Yesterday, we learned that the pines were planted in Les Landes in the 19th century, by order of Napoleon III, to dry out what used to be marshes. They then took on economic importance for local people, as a source of resin, which, once distilled, could be used in adhesives, medicines, paints, and even as rocket fuel. Word of the day: le gemmage – tapping of pine resin.
But today wasn’t spent entirely in the forest. Bernard enjoyed a breath of sea air at Mimizan Plage:

We had lunch overlooking a huge lake at Sainte Eulalie en Born Plage:

And pedalled past another just before reaching our destination:

But possibly the best feature of the day was the absence of rain. We’re hoping for more company like this tomorrow: